Identifying trees, shrubs, grasses and sedges made easy

Plant identification can be tricky: is that tree a red pine, or a jack pine?
Is that a grass, or a sedge? And, is the plant edible? Does it have medicinal
properties? Or, is it poisonous?

Solving such puzzles is made a little easier when you have a handy
identification book accompanying your walk in the countryside.

“Forest Plants of Northeastern Ontario” is just such a reference.
Published by Lone Pine, and written by three authors from Ontario’s Ministry
of Natural Resources, the book is full of excellent photographs and is an ideal
size for putting in your backpack or jacket pocket.

Don’t be dismayed by the title not including Québec. Our region of West
Québec fits nicely into what the authors describe as the boreal forest.

“The northeast region of Ontario has a mosaic of forest ecosystems,
coniferous treed wetlands on deep peats, upland mixed forests on
bedrock-controlled terrain, extensive jack pine forests on sandy soils,
sphagnum-black spruce bogs with acid-loving plants, rich fens and cedar swamps.
It extends from the Ontario-Québec border west to the Manitouwadge area. ...
The species described in this guide grow outside of these administrative
boundaries, but this is the area referred to in the text as ‘our region.’”

You’ll find extremely familiar plants in this book. The tree section
includes, for example, the large tooth aspen, a species that I’m particularly
familiar with as it grows around our home. As well, there’s the larch (or
tamarack, our only deciduous evergreen); white and black spruce; balsam fir;
jack, red, white pines; and the white cedar.

Each species is well identified. A close-up colour photograph of the leaf is
accompanied by a pen-and-ink line drawing of the leaf structure and, in the case
of the evergreens, the cone. Another good identification clue is an artist’s
drawing of a typical silhouette of each tree species.

This combined approach greatly assists positive identification of the
subject. Each species is given a complete page divided into like elements: a
general description followed by a section on leaves, flowers, fruit, habitat and
notes.

The latter is my favourite section and where you can find particularly
intriguing aspects of the species.

For example, the notes section for the larch tells us that “Larch wood is
somewhat hard, heavy and oily and is considered decay-resistant even in water.
It has been used to make railway ties, poles, fence posts and crates, and the
curved roots have been used in shipbuilding. Spruce grouse feed on expanding
buds. Chickadees, crossbars, the red-breasted nuthatch and red squirrels eat the
seeds, and larch provides browse for the snowshoe hare and porcupine.”

Interesting... and reading this made me wonder how the entry for the white
cedar differs. I didn’t know that the larch has water-resistant properties
similar to cedar. Let’s look at what the book says about cedar.

“The soft wood is light and not overly strong, but it is somewhat
decay-resistant and has been used for items such as posts, pole sand shingles,
and in canoe- and boat-building. The cedar boughs were used as brooms, and the
sweeping action deodorized the house with cedar fragrance. Cedar swamps are
habitat for many songbirds, including the Canada warbler and golden-crowned
kingly. In winter, white-tailed deer ‘yard up’ in cedar swamps and
porcupines chew through the outer bark to eat the inner bark.”

By the sounds of this book, the larch would make better posts than cedar, in
swampy ground.

The notes section also advises about whether the plant or parts are edible.
This is a particularly important topic as many people are becoming increasingly
skeptical about pharmaceutical drugs.

Be careful. Be wise. Many of the pharmaceuticals we depend upon are derived
from plants. And, many plants are poisonous.

Not only should you be absolutely sure that you can identify poison ivy in
all seasons so that you don’t get its horrible rash externally (or, horror of
horrors, internally).

But you should be careful about eating plants. Be advised by this note about
the cedar, for instance. “If cedar oil is ingested in quantity, it can cause
abnormally low blood pressure, convulsions and death. Cedar has historically
been taken internally as a diuretic and used externally for skin diseases and as
an insect repellent.”

This cautionary note brought to mind Eric’s and my recent press trip to a
pow-wow. Before attending this colorful, exciting event, we were invited to
drink cedar tea made with an infusion of hot water, cedar leaves and lemon. It
was delicious, and we evidently didn’t drink “too much.”

But what is “too much”? What I can tolerate won’t necessarily be the
same as someone else. And, if you already have low blood pressure, one’s
tolerance could be far less and you might put yourself at risk.

I don’t intend to be alarmist, but it is prudent to remember, always, that
just because something is “natural” does not mean that it is safe for you to
eat.

When Eric and I were in British Columbia last year, we went on a medicinal
plant walk with a First Nation’s guide who blithely identified what plants she
could. I say “blithely” because the enthusiastic young woman was not always
accurate: in other words, she didn’t exactly inspire confidence. When you
couple this enthusiasm with her words of encouragement about eating some of the
plants, such as the cow parsnip, you just have to wonder.

The cow parsnip is a tricky plant to identify as it resembles the extremely
poisonous water hemlock. In addition, some people are very allergic to the cow
parsnip: contact with the plant can result in painful, weeping blisters. Indeed,
just after I had started writing this column, a reader called to ask what the
blisters on her body could be. I’d never heard of cow parsnip producing such a
rash, but that’s what it turned out to be.

Bird talk: No you’re not seeing things! Bald eagles do live here, as do
Golden eagles. Erwin Mohr has spied bald-headed eagles soaring along the Eardley
Escarpment. Here at our feeder we now have a female and male pine grosbeak
regularly. Has anyone seen any special birds? Let me know!

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Katharine Fletcher is a freelance writer who telecommutes from her Quyon home.
Contact her at fletcher.katharine@gmail.com